My Favourite Place in the World

I spend most of my time 10,000km away from home in London: a city where not even your neighbours would know if you were dead in your flat for 3 weeks.

Perhaps the only half refreshing thing about London is that you see many many more Ferraris then you would ever see in KL (and especially Penang).

But when I get sick of the depressing nights, the freezing cold and the bustling roads...
I think of my favourite place in the world.

My favourite place in the world is on the balcony of my home in Penang with a view of the Tanjung Bungah suburb on my left

and the view of the sea on my right.

Sure, I've been to many apartments with far more beautiful views but I would not trade any view in the world for this one.

Every time I get back to Penang I will stand on my spot and take a picture of the same view to see if anything has changed since I've been gone.

But let me tell you how it feels.

When you sit on that balcony, you feel the heat of the sun on your skin and the very slight breeze on your face.

Yes, it is burning hot in the afternoon which is why I love to stand on that balcony wearing nothing but shorts.

Perhaps not a very beautiful sight but hey... nobody's looking.

On a quiet evening you can hear the sounds of life in the suburb below.

You hear the dogs bark, the kids scream and the occasional laughter of the people talking on the quiet streets.

When you look to your right you see the sea with the mainland at the horizon and sail boats from the nearby Penang Swimming Club.

If you're lucky you might even catch the sunset at the horizon.

I even remember the afternoon of 26th of December 2004.

There I was standing at my usual corner when I spotted unusual waves in the sea coming towards the land. I thought "Bah!

What the heck, it's not something I see everyday so might as well snap some pictures of it".

An hour later on my way out to meet friends for a movie at Gurney Plaza I got stuck in a massive traffic jam.

After almost an hour of cutting queue with my small little car and showing my middle finger to people who just don't know how to bloody drive, my mum called.

"SON!!! COME HOME NOW!!! GURNEY DRIVE GOT HIT BY TSUNAMI!!!!"

My first reaction was "TSUNAMI? IN PENANG?? Don't joke mother"

It took her 5 minutes to convince me that she wasn't pulling my leg but I told my mum that there was really nothing to worry about and that I really wanted to watch that movie. I could've been so wrong...

But hey, how was I to guess that those unusual waves were part of a Tsunami?

I would think that they would be huge tidal waves that we see on movies like "Day after tomorrow" or something.

Of course I learned later on that most of the Tsunami wave is underwater until it comes to close to the shore.

But even then... it hardly looked like a Tsunami at all did it?

Yes, fortunately it was a "Baby Tsunami" that hit Penang and it took a few days for everyone to stop panicking and for assholes to stop sending hoax SMS with messages like

"TONIGHT TSUNAMI! STAY AT HOME!!!"

But all that feels a distant past now...

So today, every time I sit on my favourite spot, I make a wish that the side of Penang I look at every day, will never change.

Unfortunately... the last time I was back, there was a building coming up right in front of my balcony.

Soon the only view I would have left on my balcony is the view of someone's window.

Lets just pray that it will be the window of a pretty girl.

Anyway, when I was typing out this post, someone suggested that I put up a picture of me standing topless on my spot.

I refused of course... but then after being labelled "TAK SPORTING", I decided... oh what the hell...

Unfortunately, this is the only one I could find.

It wasn't a pretty sight so...

Girl's... now would be a good time to look away.... So when people ask me... "What's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?"

I will give them a long hard look and say

"Take off my shirt and stand on my spot."

Please excuse Boss Stewie... he is just homesick.